Raised Like a Lamb to the Slaughter
by love-mrsfredweasley
Summary: The 71st Annual Hunger Games sees a fifteen year old girl from District 10 win the Games. This story shows her time before and during her time in the arena as well as the aftermath of her winning. (All the names are made up bar one or two like Finnick, Snow and Haymitch)
1. Chapter 1

**Raised Like a Lamb to the Slaughter**

**Chapter 1**

Reaping Day; every child's worst nightmare.

As I awoke on Reaping morning, with the sun shining through the small window in the room I shared with my sister, I had a sudden falling sensation. My stomach seemed to fall to the floor and rise back to its original place. I had a feeling this was going to be a bad one. Even the thought of the Hunger Games made my dinner from the previous night make a reappearance. As the last of the stew exited my body my sister lifted her head up from her pillow and looked down at me. She took one look at the pile on the floor and climbed out of the bed and slid down on the floor next to me. She is nine months younger than me but she takes care of me just as much as I take care of her. She looked up at me, pulled a white handkerchief out of her pocket and started to wipe my face clean with it.

"Robyn you aren't going to get picked. Your name is in there nine times, it's not nearly as much as some of the other children" she said. She was right I thought, my name was in there four times because I was fifteen as well as five extra times for the tesserae for my family members.

"I just have a bad feeling about this year's Games Raven, like something is going to change," I said looking up at her. She put her arms around me and we stayed like that until our mother came to wake us up. When she saw us together she sighed and took my sisters arms off me.

"You two need to stop begin over-dramatic and Robyn you need to start acting your age. You are older than your sister and you should start behaving like it and…" my mother started but my sister jumped in.

"She said she had a bad feeling about the Games. I think she might have had another dream." With that my mother turned on her heels and smacked my sister across the face and turn to do the same to me. My sister cupped her face in her hand and I could see underneath it that a purple bruise was already forming; she then moved to look straight into our mother's eyes.

"You will not talk about your sister's witchcraft in this house, do you understand?" She grabbed the front of my sister's shirt and shook her. Raven nodded, letting tears fall onto the wooden floor under her feet. When mother finally left and Raven fell to the floor with a thump and curled herself into a ball as small as she could letting her midnight black hair cover her body in a blanket. I quickly ran up to her forgetting my own injury and cradled her in my arms. I slowly started to rock her backwards and forwards when the door creaked open. I worried that my mother had returned so I wrapped myself over her and tried to protect as much of her as possible.

"Mother? Again?" I looked up and saw my little brother Wren standing in the frame of the door. I nodded and looked down at my sister who I was still lying on top of. He came over and was able to get Raven sitting up but could not pry her hands away from her face. I quickly ran into the kitchen and slid past father who was sitting at the table. When I arrived back in the room Wren had got Raven on the bed and was trying to coax her into taking her hands away from her face.

"Raven I have some ice here," I lifted up the cloth that was freezing my hand, "I need to put it on your face but I can't do that if you have your hands on face." I placed the cloth against her hand and waited for her to slowly retract her hands. She then gently pulled the cloth and ice out of my hands and placed it against her face. After a while she slowly opened her eyes and stared at me and lifted her fingers to my face. As her cold fingers touched my bruise a shooting pain shot up my face and I made the same wincing sound. Wren then turned to me and took an ice cube out of the material and placed it against my face.

This had started to become a weekly thing, our mother hitting us and having to deal with the injury's ourselves. Our father was a drunk and barely knew he had three children so, being the oldest, I took charge of my siblings. I took all the tesserae so that my siblings would have little chance of getting in the Games as I could possible make it because a much as I wanted I couldn't do anything to stop the names that were already in there.

After we soothed our faces and made it look like we had just bumped into something we left the house and made our way up to the farm on the other side of the hill. The walk was short but today we extended it as much as possible because we didn't really need to be there. On reaping day no one worked, everyone stayed home with there families so they could feel safe before the scary prospect that was coming along but we didn't feel safe a home. We felt safe on the farm. It wasn't the biggest one in District 10 but it was the most beautiful. It faced the six mountains on the far side of the District. During the winter you could see the snow on top of the mountains and when they were snowed in and couldn't go to school the three of them went up the mountain and played for hours because no one else went up there. Now the mountains were covered in lavender and the trees we finally starting to turn green again but some of them you could tell, even from this distance, were still orange and brown. We all loved the farm, we worked there but we found it more of a playground. We loved the animals and grew very attached to them so Wren always cried every time when they were sent off to the slaughter houses. We spent most of our time here and were very close with the owner, an old yet sweet man with greying hair and peaceful eyes. Today though the farm was empty, the barn doors were tightly shut and there was no one around to open them. We sat on the grass down by the bottom of the hill and watched the city below. The factories were churning automatically and the stage was being set up. The cameras were perched on high buildings and pointing directly down at the Justice Building. Let the Games begin.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My bushy hair inflamed the mirror and my green eyes pierced my reflection in the mirror. I was wearing a plain yet beautiful white dress. Raven had tied up her long black hair and was dress in a sky blue dress that used to belong to our mother. Wren was in a smart shirt and beige trousers and had tried to tame his bushy black hair. We then made our own way down to the Town Square and signed in. We then say our good byes to Wren and made our way to the section for 15 year olds. We stood next to each other and I grabbed her hand. I lend over to her and whispered in her ear, "No matter what, do not volunteer for me."

"But you would do the same for me."

"Raven that's different. You have to promise me," she started to argue, "Promise me. Do you promise?" She nodded and quickly added before I could stop her.

"You're not going to get picked anyway," she said squeezing my hand tightly. With that the Mayor of District 10 made his way to the up to the stage and started to read out the history of Panem. How thirteen districts rose from the ashes of a place know as North America around a shinning city called the Capital. The city was at peace until the districts started to rebel. The Capital stopped the rebellion with little casualties but one district, 13, was destroyed. To show the Districts of the Capital's power they created 'The Hunger Games', which meant that the Districts would have to offer a girl and boy 'tribute' from the ages of twelve to eighteen to fight to the death in an arena, that would be picked in an annual 'Reaping'. Once the Mayor had finished the District's Escort, Herminia Foote, made her way up to the stage. She had been escorting our district for the past two years and was one of the youngest escorts of the Games at twenty three but considering she was from the Capital she looked fairly normal. She didn't have purple skin or bright tattoos; the only thing in fact that made her look any different from any of the people in the District was her long feather like eyelashes, even her platinum blonde hair could be seen on members of the crowd even if it was a small few. Her outfit this year was bright green and she had caterpillar pins stinking out of her hair.

"Happy Hunger Games! And may the odds be ever in _your_ favour!" She shouted too loudly into the microphone making it squeak in protest. "So, ladies first." As she made her way over to the glass bowls the sound of her heels on the stone stage echoed around the square. As her hand reached inside everything stopped, even the birds and animals didn't make a sound. I could feel Raven's shoulders rise as she held her breath and as Herminia made her way up to the stage my heart was starting to pound so loudly I was surprised that no one was searching for the source of the sound. She took the white piece of paper up to the microphone, unfolded it.

"Remember our promise." I said to Raven.

And read, "Robyn Griffin."


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

I chocked back a cry. This wasn't happening. I must have misheard; I couldn't be going in the Games. The odds were in my favour, my name was in the nine times. Nothing compared to other children but I couldn't think about that now. Raven looked shocked; petrified with her jaw hanging down but unfortunately she regained her state of mind before I did. As she started to step forward for me I walked past her with a straight back and face but she pulled me back into crowd and started to walk towards the stage volunteering for me. I grabbed the back of her dress and pushed her back in the line. I shock my head at her firmly. She had tears forming in her eyes and I gave her a reassuring smile as I turned and made my way to the stage. As I walked up the stairs to the microphone I could feel my legs give way and I started to fall but before I could a pair of arms caught me and placed me up on my feet. I looked around to find the person that had assisted me but all I found was thousands of eyes facing me. Most were filled with dread, that a silly and fragile girl got picked, others with sympathy as I do have many friends in the audience and others were frustrated that for another year District 10 would not have a victor. However it was two faces in the crowd that scared me the most. Raven looked like she was about to pass out and Wren looked like he was on the brink of running onto the stage and ripping me away of the Capital.

"And next we need a male tribute," Herminia said trying to get the audience back to the Games. "And it is… Augustus Cole." I gasped. Not him. Anyone but him.

Augustus Cole was a year older than me at school and I personally had never said more than five words to him but Wren and Raven knew him quite well. He worked with up with us on the farm with his brothers, Wren and Raven spent most of the day talking to them. I knew his brother from school but that was the closest I got to knowing him that didn't stop me from having a crush on him two years ago and I stupidly asked him out and quite unsurprisingly he said no. Ever since then I have never been able to look at him in the eye and now I would have to be sent to my death with him. Then I saw him coming through the crowd. He was tall and muscular because of working in the slaughter houses and working with the animals on the farm, he came from the better side of the district but spent most of his time in the villages surrounding the town. He had dark brown hair which fell in waves across his head. He had beautiful hazel eyes that shone brightly in the sunlight. He didn't look nervous, his face seemed unfazed and calm even. Herminia help him up on the stage and nodded of the two of us to shake hands.

"Well there we have the two tributes for District 10, Augustus Cole and Robyn Griffin. Go on shake hands." She said nodding her head. His hands were soft but I could tell that they could crush my tiny hands without him even blinking. There was a short and awkward round of applause that followed as we left the stage and were taken into separate rooms in the Justice Building. As I sat and waited for my family members to arrive I looked around the room and studied my surroundings. Even though I came from a fairly wealthy family I had never seen anything like it before. The room was filled with fabric that I had never heard of and furniture I had only seen in pictures. The door opened as I started to make my way towards the oak bookcase and my siblings ran into my arms followed by my parents.

"You should have let me volunteer!" Raven shouted at me, pushing herself out of my arms and forcing me into a glass table. I steadied myself before pulling her into a hug. She tried to escape from me but in the end gave up and hugged me back. I took this opportunity to talk to her quietly, "Don't take any tesserae and don't let Wren either no matter what mother says. Work hard and behave. Stay out of mother's way and stay safe." She nodded and let go her eyes swimming with tears. My father made his way over to me and hugged me, something which had rarely ever happened.

"Remember what I taught you. You know how to use a knife and what foods you can and cannot eat. Only become allies with people that will help you and that can be easily gotten rid of. Try and go for someone that other people will kill off so you don't have to do it yourself. Work with the other one from this district in the training process but not in the arena, that can just get difficult." I was shocked with the advice that my father was giving me. Usually he never said more than three words to me and now he was trying to help me survive. After my father finished and gave me a quick kiss on my forehead my mother came up to me and whispered three words that made me loose all hope in myself. "Don't come home."

My parents left quickly but Wren and Raven stayed for a while and helped make conversation when my friends came to see me. I laughed at the jokes at the right time but at times I couldn't even pretend to be happy and Raven had to try and hide it from the others. When the hour was done, Wren and Raven were taken out by two Peacekeepers and I was led out to the Capital train. The train was huge, bigger than any of the Capital stock trains that came to pick up the meats and was half the length of the District itself. Inside the compartments were filled with low handing crystal chandilers and intricit candleabrums filled with beautiful smelling candles and in the centre there was an amazingly carved table, lined with an aray of different coloured food.

"Well, your compartements are just down the corriddor. There you will find a whole wardrobe so you can change into anything you want," I took one look down the corriddor then back at Hermina and passed out on the floor.

When I awoke I was surronded by Augustus, Hermina and two people I had only ever seen on the televison, I was also lying in a pool of what appeared to be my own sick.

"Hey, hey get up slowly, you're okay just don't get up too quickly," a tall man said handing my a cloth to wipe my mouth. I recognised him almost immediately, he was Hunter one of the five victors of The Hunger Games from District 10. He had won about fourteen years ago after killing off two career tributes with a bear trap. His brother knew my dad and he used to talk about him all the time when I was young but I had heard that Hunter had gotten a bit off the ropes and Mother had banned Father from talking about him. He didn't look like he had turned to alcohol, I think that my mother just didn't want my father to have anything that he could enjoy. I took the cloth from his hand and wiped my face. I handed it back to him but he shook his head and placed it back into my hand.

"I'll help her back to her room and make sure she doesn't do anything stupid," Augustus said picking me up and lifting me in his arms and then carried me off to the furthest room on the train. He placed my on the bed and tucked me under the covers. He pulled out the many hairclips and hair ties out of my hair and left before I could say anything else.

I lay there for about half an hour before I realised that I would have to face my fate sooner or later so I got up out of the bed and looked down at the crumpled mess that was my Reaping dress. I knew that I couldn't go out wearing it so I slowly took it off and hung it over the closest chair, I then made my way over to the wardrobe and put on the first thing I found which happened to be very similar to what I was wearing before but blue and far shorter. Everyone was sitting around the table including and older woman who must have been Cassia, one of the other Hunger Games Victors, who won before my mother was even born. They all turned to face me as I walked in the door and Hunter got off his chair and pulled out the one next to him and offered me to sit in it. I smiled at him and sat down on the wooden seat; he then pushed me in and sat back down again.

"How are you feeling," Herminia asked me looking genially worried.

"I am fine, I am sorry I haven't been feeling too well lately and my stomach has been acting up lately," I said trying to cover up that I was absolutely terrified. Herminia nodded looking unconvinced but letting it go.

The rest of the meal continued with little to no conversation. Neither I nor Augustus wanted to talk about any form of tactics or how we were to kill twenty-two other children. We sat around the television set, which looked like it would cost more than all my family members earned in a year, and watched the Reapings from the other districts. This year there was only one volunteering and it was of course from District 2, a girl who looked taller and stronger than me and my brother put together. As usual the Tributes from District 1, 2 and 4 looked like they trained for this on a daily basis, while the rest of us looked like twigs compared to them. I was defiantly one of the most pathetic looking Tributes and that was saying something because a thirteen year old boy got picked from District 9 and a girl from District 6 that looked like she could have been blind in one eye but they both got onto the stage without collapsing. I could tell that Herminia was not happy with me but I think that Augustus made up for me, looking at him now I can see that he is everything you would want in a tribute; strong, attractive and charming. What was I? A foolish and terrified fifteen year old girl who cant even make it too a stage without falling over her feet, I am never going to win the Games, not in a million years.

When we finished watching the recaps I left towards my room to take one final look at my District before I was taken to an unknown and foreign place but as I reached the window I found only darkness. Not only was I speeding on towards the Capitol and missed my opportunity to take one last look at District 10 but I was also completely oblivious to the fact that we had been moving for the past couple of hours. Augustus came to stand next to me making me jump out of my skin.

"You slept through the whole thing. We are in the tunnels leading to the Capitol, we won't be seeing anything for a while." I looked up at him expecting to see some kind of sadness or anger but all I saw was a sixteen year old boy looking out a train window in some kind of daydream. He looked at me and turned to his side to face me. "You should have let your sister volunteer." Then just as before he turned on his heels and walked off towards his room but this time I was in control of my body and wasn't going to let him get away with say what he said.

"What do you mean?" I shouted after him. "Hey. Listen to me!" I ran in front of him and stopped him in his tracks. "Would you let your brother volunteer for you? No you wouldn't, so why should I let my sister volunteer for me?"

He looked down at me and opened his mouth to say something but then shut it again only for it to open once more. "Your sister could have won the Games. You have no chance."

"What?!"

"You have no chance of winning the Games. Look at yourself Robyn." He said gesturing his arm up and down my body. "You're skinnier than half the people in the District, you hate watching the animals die and I have never seen you even raise your voice at someone, let alone kill someone."

"Well then you're going to be thoroughly surprised."

"I hope so."


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3 **

When we arrived at the Capitol station we were greeted by a mass of people, if that's really what you wanted to call then. Half of them didn't really look human, with the multiple eyelashes, tattoos and dyes on their skin and faces they could hardly be deemed as normal. You would never find anything even slightly like that in District 10, some of the richer people in the District such as the Mayor's family and the Peacekeeper could afford powder and pencils which they used to outline features on their faces but I had never seen anything so dramatic and unrealistic in my life. The previous Escort of my District had some horrifying outfits but I could see worse in the crowd. I looked like a plain piece of paper compare to the brightly coloured and highly altered people. Herminia lead us into a tall building which looked more luxurious than anything I had ever seen before and before I could take in my surroundings I was thrown into a giant elevator which shot up at the push of a button.

The Remake Centre. Rumours spread around the District of the horrifying acts which happened inside but they were nothing compared to the real thing. Every single hair which looked even slightly out of place was torn from your body at such a huge force that it left you breathless. My legs, underarms and eyebrows were still burning from the tearing sensation even after it was long finished. My prep team was now organising my eyebrows into a less bushy fashion and cutting away at my already short nails.

"We cannot do anything with these! There's nothing there," the woman, who had introduced herself as Tatia, shouted. "We are going to need some of the fake nails here." She then proceeded to run over to a shinning table and pick up a pack of what must have been fake nails. Tatia was a tall and lanky character who out of the three members of my prep team I would have to say I preferred the least. She had a highly alterated face which made her eyes look huge and her nose beak-like. If she was trying to look like a bird than she had succeeded to the highest level but if she was not then she needed a refund in my opinion. Flora who was currently fixing my eyebrows into a perfect curved arch was almost certainly my favourite. She kept to herself and tried to hurt me as little as possible. She wasn't much better with the alterations but it was no where near as drastic as Tatia's. She had silver and gold tattoos which intertwined up and down her body, reaching up to her neck and finger tips. Crispus, who was the only male member of my prep team, was the loudest of the bunch. Talking about this and that, from the latest fashion to the highest paid celebrities of the Capitol. He had no enhancements on his face or body but his clothes were worse than any tattoo or skin dye. At the beginning of the remake he was wearing all colours of the rainbow with no order or direction but half way through he decided that it was too warm and transferred to next to nothing, a tiny little pair of shorts, which didn't really cover anything, and a woollen coat which I really believed should never be worn together considering they are for too very different types of weather. While saying that he was very funny and included me into the conversation where possible. I decided straight off that no matter who much these three people annoyed me I would not get angry or agitated in anyway. I would nod and smile where appropriate and occasionally laugh at their jokes and even once or twice add my own opinion but that was pushing it but I had to be nice. They were preparing me for my Chariot Ride which is hugely important as it will help me to gain sponsors which I will desperately need while in the Arena. It will be the first time that the Capitol people will see me since the Reaping and since that didn't go too well I had to knock them all away but that's going to be a bit difficult because we have to dress up as something which represents my District which just so happens to be livestock which means that every year the tributes get dressed in awful and totally unflattering cow costumes. I think last year one of the Tributes was even dressed up as a sheep. It gets worse every year and usually decreases even more so when we have a new stylist, which of course we have this year. We aren't the only District which makes a fool of ourselves though. District 7 and 12 are usually just as bad if not worse. Being a lumber district doesn't really open up a lot of ideas for District 7 though, what else is there to dress up as except trees. I guess they could go as woodcutters but the stylists for 7 seem pretty stuck on trees. District 12 is no better really, a coal mining district so they mostly tend to dress up as coal miners which is quite boring. Some of the other districts can be bad at times but they usually get at least one or two years when the costumes aren't too bad, it just really depends on the stylists but all of them want the easy districts like 1, 2 and 4 where is quite simple to get great ideas and costumes considering that their districts have more interesting outputs than the rest of us. District 1 is luxury items, so they usually come out with gorgeous, shinny outfits that hang and shape things perfectly, District 2 is Missionary and even though that isn't the easiest thing to make a costume out of, they are the Capitols favourite district so everyone always over does it there. District 4 is fishing and even though that could come across as a boring district they always seem to come up with costumes that steal the show, for example last year the tributes were dressed up as merpeople and looked absolutely stunning. The other district that has is quiet easy is 8 because they have textiles which means that they can dress up in anything they like and get away with it as long as it has some form of material in it. But I don't come from those districts, I am stuck with cows. My prep team kept on making a huge thing about the costume and the new stylist but I couldn't care less, as long as I am not dressed up in a cow suit I will be overjoyed.

It took the prep team hours to clean me, paint me and fix my hair but once they were done it was totally worth it. They hadn't gone over board with my make-up just simple tan and brown colours with blacks and dark chocolate browns to highlight and bring out my features. The browns complemented my green eyes and made them shimmer against the dark colours painted in my face. They had done fairly little with my nails which disappointed Tatia more than she would like to admit but she had at least made them more existent. She had used some kind of growth nail polish which gave my nails a slight point which I have never had before and then painted them gold with brown sparkles. My hair, though, was defiantly my favourite. After spending half an hour cutting and re-growing my hair so that it reached my chest, they had straightened it so that every single kink was flattened and every curl corrected. They then arranged it into three parts with the larger one remaining in its normal place and the other two tied at the back of my head together with leather ropes. Then they added the rest of the leather rope and some golden string to my hair making my golden brown hair shimmer in the light. All of them stepped back to look at me, I could tell that they were happy with their work but I felt that they obviously wanted to do more and go a little bit more. With that they left me on in the room by myself, I stared at myself in the mirror. At certain angles I still looked like myself but at other places I could see features and highlights that I had never seen before. I was shocked to see the person staring back at me. I was still studying my reflection when the door opened and a tall man with golden hair and calming brown eyes entered the room.

"Hello Robyn, I am your stylist. My name is Nero."


End file.
